D.C. health department picks medical marijuana dispensaries

The D.C. Department of Health on Tuesday notified four applicants to the city’s burgeoning medical marijuana program they are eligible to open a dispensary at their desired locations, one of the final steps necessary to begin the District’s long-awaited effort to aid the sick and dying.

The successful firms had applied to dole out the drug at four separate addresses in the District. They join six firms announced in March who are eligible to grow the drug at cultivation centers.

A six-member panel had scored application from firms hoping to join the District’s medical marijuana effort, which voters approved by referendum in 1998 before years of congressional interference and detailed rulemaking delayed its implementation.